Wii RRP should drop to US$80 – SEGA

Nintendo ponders whether to take the advice from a failed hardware company – snap

Constantine Hantzopoulos from SEGA strikes again, this time responding in a considerably off-topic fashion to a question about a potential Wii HD. He admitted that he had no idea about any plans Nintendo might have for a revision of the Wii, but thought they should conduct a price reduction instead.

“The interesting thing is Nintendo, they make money off of every console they sell," he says. "I think one of the big things that we found out is it really is a mass market product where mom or whoever goes out, the 80% of the people out there who go out and buy a Wii box are happy with Wii Sports and they don’t really need another game. Or if they do need another game, they’ll buy Wii Resort [sic] because it comes with a free Wiimote or Wii Play…So, honestly I don’t know…You can obviously see that profits are down for Nintendo. I think the Wii is on its tail slide, unless they drop the price to like 80 bucks then you’ll start seeing it flying off the shelves. And I believe they’ll still make money if they drop it to 80 bucks…Point being is they have the ability to lower the price on the Wii […] where Sony and Microsoft cannot do that.”

Fact errors aside about the bundles, as of March last year the Wii had a software tie ratio of 6:1, so obviously people are getting more than just the Wii range. Even with a large sales downturn, its doubtful the Wii will ever see a price anywhere near US$80 this generation.

Source: 4 Guys 1UP Podcast via Nintendo Everything